Capital punishment and life without parole are possible fates for Austin Harrouff, who will be charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and burglary in the fatal attack on Michelle Mishcon and John Stevens III in Tequesta. He’s pictured walking through the restaurant wearing white shorts, a blue shirt and a red hat.
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His parents were so anxious about his behavior that evening, they called police and some of his friends to try to find him.
Harrouff is still hospitalized and the sheriff has suggested that he won’t be formally charged until his release, so that his family has to keep paying the bills until then.
A surveillance video released Friday, shows Harrouff walking calmly as he leaves Duffy’s restaurant in nearby Jupiter about 45 minutes before the attack. According to the Sheriff’s Office, 19-year-old Austin Harrouff stabbed and beat them to death.
A good Samaritan, Jeff Fisher, was also stabbed multiple times while trying to stop the attack. He will also be charged with attempted first degree murder in connection with the attempted killing of the couple’s neighbor Jeffrey Fisher.
But he wants prosecutors to seek the death penalty against the attacker, who investigators say also was biting the dead man’s face when deputies arrived at the scene. “With the love and energy and friends and strength in this room, we’re gonna make it through”, said Jeff Mishcon, the father of one of those killed. She also said her son had no history of mental illness nor heavy drug use.
Solving that mystery doesn’t matter so much to the children of Stevens and Mishcon.
“It is not super important to me what his mindset was”, Stevens told the Sun Sentinel on Thursday.
Snyder said tests for substances in Harrouff’s system may help explain why the student with no history of criminal behavior became extraordinarily violent.
He wants prosecutors to seek the death penalty against the attacker. Police say he was tearing chunks of Stevens’ face off with his teeth and eating them. She told the dispatcher he believed he was carrying a pocket knife, but, “I think that is all he has on him”.
“I hope he makes a full recovery so he can be put through the justice system”, his sister Ivy Stevens told the newspaper. Experts say he may have been on N-Bomb, the world’s deadliest designer drug.
His attorney, Robert Watson, did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment.
Detectives say it took a Taser, dogs, and several officers in order to subdue Harrouff.
Hospital blood tests showed no signs of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin or other common drugs; it will take longer to test for less common hallucinogenic drugs such as flakka or bath salts.
Wade and Mina Harrouff issued a statement Friday through a lawyer expressing what they said was “their deepest sympathy for the pain and suffering caused by Austin”.
We love our son and know that he is not the person some are making him to be for their own purposes.
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Deputies said Thursday he remained in critical but stable condition at St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach.
